The present invention relates to a battery powered camera, and more particularly to a camera such as a motion picture camera with a collapsible grip adapted for use to check the residual capacity of the battery and to prevent the wasteful consumption thereof.
Recently, many cameras include electronic control circuits and film driving systems which are powered by a replaceable battery in the camera. In a small camera, the battery incorporated in the camera becomes accordingly small in size and has only limited capacity. To promote the effective use of such a small capacity battery, the wasteful consumption of the battery must be avoided and a check must regularly be made to examined how long the battery can still be used.
For this purpose, a camera with a battery therein is usually equipped with a battery checker which serves to check the residual capacity of the battery and signal the user that the battery is exhausted beyond a certain level. The battery checker of the conventional type is operated by a push button provided on the side of the camera body and emits light or sound if the capacity of the battery is adequate for operation. Alternatively, the battery checker is constructed in the form of an indication meter that indicates the residual capacity of the battery.
A battery checker with such a construction, however, has the drawback of needing many parts and has a complicated circuit arrangement with increasingly high manufacturing costs.
To prevent the wasteful consumption of the battery, the battery powered camera is further equipped with a device for turning a main power switch off automatically after camera operation is finished. This device allows the automatic turning-off of the main power switch only when it is set in a functional position before camera operation begins. It, however, leads to unnecessary consumption of the battery if the user forgets to set the device in the functional position prior to operation.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to overcome these above-mentioned drawbacks and provide a battery powered camera capable of indicating the residual capacity of the battery and signalling the user with ease that the battery is exhausted to a predetermined level.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a battery powered camera capable of preventing the wasteful consumption of the battery after the camera operation has been completed.